172 EXPLORATION BY SEA. 1791 Endeavour Straits. Bryant's escape to Timor. terminated the rocks and shoals of the north part of Nott Holland " ; and he adds : — I have little doubt but that the opening, which I named the Bay of Islands, is Endeavour Straits ; and that our track was to the northward of Prince of Wales's Isles.* There is some interest in the passage in which Cook referred to this ^^ opening/^ on the 23rd August, 1770 : — To this channel, or passage, I have given the name of the ship, and called it Endeavour Streights. Cook, it seems, had not then read DalrjTnple's Account of the Discoveries in the South Pacific Ocean previous to 1764, published in 1767 — the year before the Endeavour sailed — in which he showed that Torres had sailed through the Straits in 1606. When the news of Bligh's voyage reached the settlement at Sydney Cove, it inspired some of the more daring convicts with fresh hopes of escaping from their prisonf. The most adventurous of the many attempts made for this purpose was that of a man named William Bryant, who, accompanied by his wife and two children and seven men, sailed away from the port in a cutter which had been placed under his charge for fishing purposes. This event took place on the night of the 28th March, 1791. Bryant and two or three of the men with him had some knowledge of navigation as well as the management of a boat ; and having obtained a Assisted by compass, quadrant, and chart from the master of a Dutch men. vcsscl lying in the harbour, they steered for Timor. Tench obtained the following account from one of them : — They coasted the shore of New Holland, putting occasionally into different harbours which they found in going along. One of these
- In 1792, Captain Bligh, in H. M.S. Providence, explored a passage through
Torres Straits on his return voyage from Tahiti to the West Indies. Lieu- tenant Flinders served on this expedition, and left an account of it in the introduction to his work, p. xix. t ** After the escape of Captain Bligh, which was well known to us, no length of passage or hazard of navigation seemed above human accomplish- ment." — Tench, Complete Account p. 108. The facts relating to Bryant's escape are related by Collins, pp. 156, 218, and also by Tench. Digitized by Google
